One by One
by shellalana
Summary: After sending Rendain into the void, the Rogues time together has come to an end. Circumstances arise to separate them from the Valkyrie, in one way or another.


_Fermentation_

"You know you've always got a seat on my ship." Reyna tugged down the edges of the chaos witch's hat, ensuring that it was fitted tightly to her head as she worked up her best smile. Orendi may not have had many of her people left, but if they were out there, scattered, she had every right to go and look for them. The LLC intel had come in handy, revealing a few pockets of them in the nearby vicinity, nothing too out of the way for the Fortune's Favour to handle. It was only right that Orendi be taken to them, so she could find a new home for herself. Not that there were very many places left to choose from.

"NOT THE ONE IN THE TIME OUT CORNER!" Black pigtails flailed like untamed tentacles as she tried to get away from the Commander's smothering hand. She simply didn't like her hat being touched, even by the person she was least likely to kill.

"No, not the one in the Time Out corner," she chuckled. How the varimorph hated that chair. So many hours had been spent sulking in the damn thing because she'd broken another of Reyna's rules. But she'd definitely kept things interest, to the point Reyna couldn't be sure how she was going to cope without the bundle of energy jumping around the ship, causing a ruckus wherever she went.

... she would probably sleep a little more, that's for sure.

The gangplank to her ship finally touched ground in its descent, the shap shaking and groaning in kind. It was nothing more than a moon bordering a darkened planet, but it was where the others had found an escape from Rendain's forces. Their natural adaptive nature had certainly helped them to survive the worst, probably much better than the other races of this galaxy had.

"Reyna Reyna Reyna, you'll come visit, right?" Claws dug into the leather sleeve and tugged hard, one free hand still adjusting the hat on her head. Orendi's momentary lucidity revealed the concern in her voice, and Reyna swore he eyes looked a little glassier than usual. Or maybe that was just a trick of the light.

"Course, kid. You're gonn have to fight me off with a stick. C'mere." She grabbed up the skinny spider child in just one arm, and smothered her in a hug. A complaining wheeze escaped the varimorph, but Reyna couldn't tell if it was from the hug or not.

Once Orendi unfurled herself from her grip, she tugged her hat down a little further to hide her face, and made her way down the slope, not daring to look back. There was no one there to greet her - not that Reyna could spot right away anyway - but she knew there was no need for concern. _She was going to be fine_.

"GOOD. I CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO HOST A REAL MURDER PARTY. YOU'RE IN CHARGE OF THE DOILIES."

And before Reyna could think of an appropriate response, the chaos witch was gone, sprinting off into the wilds.

* * *

 _Molting_

The groaning had been the first sign that something was wrong. Since his arrival, the assassin's room had been nothing but quiet, so when the pained noises erupted during the nights, there was reason for concern. When questioned, however, he offered nothing but reassurances that he was fine. Another visit to Alani would take care of it.

Once a week had turned into every other day. Then sometimes twice a day or more. It was obvious that whatever she was doing wasn't working anymore, and Reyna wasn't a babysitter by any means. There had been only so much time she could dedicate to ensuring that he was fine. but when the door had been hindered by a pile of scales and his separated arm, she knew there was nothing more to be done.

"I can... I can still..." The lump that lay beneath the covers sounded so unlike himself, his large head barely peeking out from beneath its warmth. His legs and arms were gone now, and his kamas hung fro their hook on the wall across from him. His treasured possessions no longer had a purpose.

"I know... People're gonna talk about Executive Executions for centuries. You're gonna be a legend people tell their kids to make 'em brush their teeth at night." A hand reached out to give his head a soothing pat, but he wanted none of it. Her words weren't helping at all.

"Don't patronize me," he hissed as he recoiled form her touch. He had his pride in his work, and now he was no longer able to continue the craft he had perfected. "All those years! So many plans!" He buried himself further under the sheets, and Reyna knew there was nothing she could say to make any of this better. What _could_ she say? She still had her purpose and her limbs about her. He had _nothing_.

That was the last time she saw him too. The water monk was the only one he ever allowed in his room anymore, up until the day he decided to leave. Akopos was gone, but there were other water plants they could settle on. Reyna made the standing offer to have one of the asteroids terraformed into something suitable for both his and Alani's needs, but that hadn't made his mood any better. He was "less" than the Roa they'd met, and he wasn't interested in being something different to them. He didn't want to be the "sick patient" they came to visit just so he could feel remembered.

"I'll take care of him, don't worry." Alani's cold, damp hand shook hers as they stood before the UPR ship that would help them find a new home.

"Yeah... don't forget to write." She tried to offer her best smile, but the look on Alani's face mad her realize the error in her statement. "... maybe video chat?"

"Maybe."

It would be a few years before the LLC even got satellite networks running in that part of space, but it didn't matter at that point. She never heard from the assassin ever again.

* * *

 _Super Nova_

Reyna dug her knucles against her eyes, trying to will away the sleep. She'd been up for the better part of two days, mulling over the piece of news she'd received on the radio. A woman's voice, nervous and gentle, had been patched in by one of the Lorrians. He'd called it urgent, but that hadn't really been for him to decide. When she'd heard what the woman had to say, however, Reyna realized she had a conundrum on her hands.

... how was she going to tell the kid? Their parents were arriving the following morning, and Reyna sitll hadn't found a way to break the news to them. _That Shayne wasn't an orphan after all_.

The Commander had been hoping that the young scrapper would take her place once it was time for her to retire. Molding them would have been easy, given how much they reminded her of her younger self, and they seemed most fitting for the task, too. Stubborn and with a fiery passion that left room for no bullshit. That had been her hope, at least. Now, she was going to have to look for someone else.

Might as well get this over with.

"hey, kid," Reyna said as she knocked lightly on their door. It was always a gamble coming here, not knowing how she would find the state of their room and what antics they would be getting into with that "pet" of theirs. For once, however, they seemed to be at peace doing their own separate things. Aurox was napping in his cage, and Shayne was on their bed, scratching something into a sheet of paper.

"Hey, Reyna! I know what I'm gonna name my hoverskiff!" She held up a crude drawing of said skiff with an equally crude name scrawled under it. On any other day, Reyna would have been laughing her ass off at the suggestion. The fact that she didn't told Shayne that something was up, and their ecstatic grin faded the closer the Valkyrie got.

"Looks like you're gonna have to take that one to go, kid." The bed shifted under her weight as she sat, looking over the doodle. They were supposed to take their first ride together, once she got it shipped and fixed up for them to use. Looked like none of that was going to happen. Ever.

"Whaddya mean?" They scooched away from her, hugging a knee to their chest. They never liked when she sounded serious, because that meant there wouldn't be much fun for a while.

"Looks like your parents're coming to get you, kid. Tomorrow morning." That sounded a lot more final than she wanted, and she ran a hand through her hair to ease the strain of its burden. So umch for trying to wean them into this.

"M-my...?"

"I'm not gonna make you stay, kid, but family's not something you can just push aside, especially after a war. I think you should go with them." At the back of Reyna's mind, she couldn't help but feel as if she were projecting her own wants. Presented with the prospect of spending time with her parents again, she would have given up this life in a heartbeat.

"No! No, no, no, that isn't fair!" Fingers crumpled the drawing in their frustration and threw it clear across the room, the tears already gathering at the corners of their eyes.

"No one ever said it was. All I'm saying is spend some time with 'em, settle down, remember what it's like to be a kid. You can always come back when you're ready." It was a lie, and the easiest one to tell. To give the teenager the opening they wanted to hear to make it easier to leave. There would be no coming back.

"... you promise?"

"Don't be a dumbass. Like anyone could replace you." The second lie; there were plenty of other orphans out there who could learn what needed to be done. One with a guayota, however...

"And Aurox?"

They both turned to regard the creature in his cage, his one eye peering open at the sound of his name.

"It would be good to be away from your meddlesome prattling," he chuffed; he'd obviously been listening to their conversation, pretending to be asleep.

"I'll keep the big guy safe, if he wants to stay here." He curled an arm around their shoulder and squeezed them against her side. With Shayne gone, Reyna would likely return Aurox to his natural surroundings. The last of his kind, gobbling up shards for the rest of his life...

"One more ride on the skiff before they get here?"

"Heh, yeah. Sure. Why not?"

* * *

 _Rust_

It had been days since she'd heard from the clone; that wasn't unusual in the least, given how he liked keeping his stash of shards to himself. She usually left well enough alone - if he wanted help, he would ask for it - but iwas a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that told her to go anyway, to his usual hunting grounds on Ekkunar. With most of the Rogues gone, the quiet had been starting to get to her. Mostly empty rooms stared back at her instead of the inquisitive faces she'd gotten used to, and his extended absence was making the reality of the situation hit harder than it should have.

 _There'll be others_ , she told herself as she hopped out of the shuttle and began her search. Other mercenaries interested in taking up odd jobs now and again for her. Some of them might even be interested in staying at her sunlit hub in the middle of the galaxy. _But they would never be_ _ **them**_. _The little family she'd gathered for herself_. She swore under her breathe at how easily she'd allowed herself to get so close to them. It was supposed to be for a single mission, a task to make sure the world kept spinning. _That was all it was supposed to be_.

Relief washed over her for but a second when she saw the glint of chipped metal out of the corner of her eye. The scarred red and gold helmet peeking above the large stump, the large squared-back shoulders resting against it.

"Hey. Asshole," she joked. Anything to uncloud her mind from the dor thoughts thatplagued her. "There a reason you haven't been answering your comms?"

...

There should have been a retort. A chuckle, maybe. Not even a glint of that yellow glow from his hiding place. Nothing.

...

A quick glance around revealed nothing; he wasn't waiting for an ambush, or else whoever he was hunting would have fired on her already.

"... h-hey. This isn't funny," she hissed across the empty space between them. More nothing. Her throat suddenly felt quite dry, and it ached all the way down into her chest. It was hard to breathe, even harder to think as the gravity of the situation finally started to dawn on her. Though her view spun at a speed that made it hard to stay upright, she dug in her heels and ran. It all moved in slow-motion, not matter how much effort she forced into moving her feet, but she'd soon slid across the grass to his side. The dull thwoomp of her command gauntlet bathed him in purple light, a protective covering just in case he had taken a hit.

 _Deja vu_.

That was usually enough to take care of everything. Only there were no bullet wounds. no broken limbs. Just a spill of blood down his chin and across his chest. Stains of it still coating his teeth. His eye wasn't glowing anymore. His genetic timer had finally run out.

She should have hazarded a guess that this was how it would go, but she would have much preferred if the bullets had taken him instead. His UPR programming had been his undoing, a part of himself that he couldn't change, not matter what he'd done. Wanting to be so much more than what they'd made him for, and for her, _he had been_. So many swears fell from her lips and the tears came without noticing as she removed his hands from the gun that rested in his lap. She tossed it to his feet and took the large, calloused fingers in her own, thumbing at the scars and lines his life had cut into it.

"... keep a seat warm for me 'til I get there..."

* * *

 _Faulty Wiring_

"Uh... Miss Reyna?" There was the lightest of knocks on her door, and she knew it could be none other than the small Aviant. He was the last of her Rogues left, and he'd been hemming and hawing fro the past few weeks since she'd returned looking like someone had kicked her puppy to death. The week she'd remained in her room, only venturing out for the occasional shower and something to eat. He hadn't seen her like this before, and was ill-equipped to handle the situation. She had always been his backbone when he needed it, providing him with support and a kind word when he was down in the dumps. With the tables turned, he wasn't sure he could live up to her standard.

So he did what he could: sorting through her paperwork, issuing a few shipment orders with the Lorrians, anything he felt he could do to help the ship continue to sail smoothly. He wasn't sure he was doing as well as she could have pulled it off, but nothing had blown up. Yet.

He could only stay for so long, however. Menneck sill needed him, his people still needed his help to rebuild. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, he decided he could stay until she seemed more like herself. And then...

"What is it?" As she turned in her seat, he noticed how angular her face had become. She wasn't spending so much time in isolation anymore, but the mirth in her eyes was no longer there. She rarely frequented the bar anymore, and her smiles were fewer and farther between. Could he really leave her like this now?

His feet slapped against her barren floor as he entered, his flippers twisting together in knots. He should have thought to prepare something beforehand.

"I was thinking, just for a little while, I could go back to Menneck and help out. Just until things are sorted out..." He could feel himself shrinking, his voice tapering off as he spoke. He knew she wouldn't yell - never at him - but he was afraid that she would relapse now that he was the last one left.

Reyna blinked, then smiled, and tossed her pen onto the table. Her reports could wait.

"Don't see why that's a problem. You afraid I'm gonna turn into some weeping damsel against at the drop of a hat?" That was far from the truth, but she'd be lying if she said it didn't hurt to know he was leaving too.

"Well, no, but..." He didn't know _how_ she was going to react, honestly.

"Go. I'll get some supplies packed up for you to take, for you and for Berg."

"... you're really okay with this?"

 _No, but nothing lasts forever_.

"Don't you worry about me. I'll bounced back in no time. Send me pictures. And kick some ass." She dropped to her knees and gave the Aviant a hug. He'd come a long way since she'd first met him, especially with his assistance in beating Rendain. His confidence had certainly taken a leap since then.

"I don't see how I'm going to do that when-"

"I meant keep being awesome."

"You... you too, Reyna. I'll uh go get my stuff." He dawdled for a few seconds longer to make sure she seemed okay before finally heading out the door. He couldn't shake the heavy cloud that hovered over him, but he needed to start making a decision for his own life.

And she couldn't be more proud of him for it. Sighing heavily, Reyna glanced back at the list on her desk. A list of names. A few good potentials to fill in some niches, people crawling out of the woodwork for jobs now that they threat was no longer there. Some of them might even make a good team.

 _But they would never be replacements_.


End file.
